Gene replacement and elimination using λRed- and FLP-based tool to re-direct carbon flux in acetogen biocatalyst during continuous CO2/H2 blend fermentation

Abstract

A time- and cost-efficient two-step gene elimination procedure was used for acetogen Clostridium sp. MT1834 capable of fermenting CO₂/H₂ blend to 245 mM acetate (p < 0.005). The first step rendered the targeted gene replacement without affecting the total genome size. We replaced the acetate pta-ack cluster with synthetic bi-functional acetaldehyde-alcohol dehydrogenase (al-adh). Replacement of pta-ack with al-adh rendered initiation of 243 mM ethanol accumulation at the expense of acetate production during CO₂/H₂ blend continuous fermentation (p < 0.005). At the second step, al-adh was eliminated to reduce the genome size. Resulting recombinants accumulated 25 mM mevalonate in fermentation broth (p < 0.005). Cell duplication time for recombinants with reduced genome size decreased by 9.5 % compared to Clostridium sp. MT1834 strain under the same fermentation conditions suggesting better cell energy pool management in the absence of the ack-pta gene cluster in the engineered biocatalyst. If the first gene elimination step was used alone for spo0A gene replacement with two copies of synthetic formate dehydrogenase in recombinants with a shortened genome, mevalonate production was replaced with 76.5 mM formate production in a single step continuous CO₂/H₂ blend fermentation (p < 0.005) with cell duplication time almost nearing that of the wild strain.